Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1887-08-11
FASTENED back to the city to provide

ctiirIt itAftHSlOui yOuh ACAFI
not make more outside show than
you do; q block, like death, reduces
men to the same level-apparently, st
least; and whether you.wish to have
characteristic dwelling or not, you
can'thaveit except within. Lydiagasp-
ed a little at the idea OF 'goin' to York
to live" 1t was a great elevation, n
Farmingham people bristled with en-
Wy; but Lydia rather dreaded it. How
ever, Peter soothed her with stories oil
city conveniences; q kitchen where the
water, both hot and cold, came into
the sink at her pleasure; no lamps to
fill or trim; no weekly butcher to walt
and stay at home for; all the needs
and Injuries of life close at hand; un-
limited meetings and temperance lect-
ures; and utilization awaiting her With
all the women's unions and female
leagues known to her hitherto as dis
tant glories and powers through the
newspapers. What q change from the
one feeble society in birmingham,
where she had only been a member
one OF three-the other six we're all Of
ficers.
So in due time Lydia was installed
in her new home, along with the VIII
ing-bound girl and the unwilling cat,
and revealed in the glories oh a city
house with a basement kitchen, a par
Tor with red plush furniture and q blue
tapestry carpet; ornamented with
large and forbidding portraits OF Pc
ter in his neatly parted wig, and Sun
day coat, vts-a.vis with the first
Mrs. Peter, sound and snug in a black
velvet gown. 1t is as cheap to be
painted in velvet as in calico. This
state apartment was kept dark and
still. The square room behind it was
the liveng room, and both Peter's-and
Lydia's old furnishings were sprinkled
sparsely over the house.
They had very little society, FOR Pc
ter's social development had always
been small; but Lydia found enough
to do in her new house and her even
ing meetings; and Peter joined q mems
temperance society. who held their
meetings in the same building where
Lydia's branch of the women's league
held theirs, so that it vas remarkably
convenient for them to go and come
together.
Deprived of any other outlet for his
busy nature, Peter soon became a
prominent person in the NJ. T. A.
Circle, No. 4. He rose to the
rank of Secretary, and was then
elected Vice President. Lydia had
no such honors showered on her;
naturally modest, she was afraid to
speak before q crowd OF strangers.
But while her sensitive womanhood
led her to keep silence, she was a reg
utor, so the "sistering' did not
frown upon her.
Peter, however, was as active as a
bluebottle fly; The talked and prayed and
worked with vigorous zeal; he button
holed indifferent men and awoke their
interest; he hauled more than one
youth from the saloons where he vas
beglr ming to slide down the easy de-
scent OF degradation, and helped him
to stand thereafter on his feet; and
many o wife, bereft worse than by
death, many a family OF more than
fatherless children, blessed the good,
iussy little man who fed and clothed
them, and promptly clapped the
drunken brute who figured as the
head" OF those desolate households
into the places prepared for such
transgressors.
About a year after Peter set up his
household gods in the uptown block,
the city was visited by two noted fe-
male apostles OF the temperance cause
Mrs. johnson Park and Miss AIDE
Gne Nary. Their eloquence of speech,
their gifts in prayer, their organizing
powers, taeir acceptance with the sis
ters everywhere, were the theme OF
every tongue. Quite Lydia came
home nom her weekly meeting full of
mild enthusiasm; she was carried
away with Sister Park. Never had
she heard such fluent speech, so clear,
so convincing, so tender; and as for
Sister Nary, she never heard such a
prayer as that woman made-neverl
And SO she went on daily, for she
left the household to Betsy Ann and
the cat, andfollowed these two where
ever they went to preach or to teach,
in the churches, the halls, ~the-any-
where. Peter could not but share in
her interest; he listened to her re-
ports of meetings with both his ears
and all his soul. He looked upon Ly-
dia as favored beyond measure, and
fairly pinned to have these wonderful
women admit the general public to
their presence, and allow them to
share their gifts and graces; but the
meetings so far were so crowded with
women that there was no place found
for men.
One day Betsey Ann announced to
Lydia that Somebody's ben movin'
into the next house, Mis- Patterson:
p'rhaps you're goin' to hev neighbors
that side, ef you haven't got them
t'other."
1t had been n mystery and atrial to
Lydia ever since she came to her new
home that her next-door neighbors
did not call on her. She did not even
know their names. She saw a man
leave the nous after break
fas5 and return before dinner,
and sometimes she saw a lady go
out and take the cross-town cars;
INC she had done that at the same
time, but she did not quite dare to
''scrape acquaintance" as she termed
1t, and as there was no door-plate on
the door, she could not address the
lady by name, IL seemed q cold un-
christian way to live. but after a time
she became used to it, and IN her in
teresting meetings forgot this unpleas-
ant state of things. The lett-hand
house had long been empty, but LYDIA
was not so sangulna about its new oc-
cupants rs her handmade.
Still, being from he country. where we
all make it our business to know ev.
cry man, woman and child who
goes into or eomes out of the next
houses, and those across the street
besides, Lydia did turn a watchiul eve
on the new family. She observed
that they kept later hours than she
and Peter did, for night aft.
er night, when Peter had locked
every lock and TUNED ont
every burner, when the cat was
Strengthening the innocentsin the cellar
and kitchen, when Betsy was snoring
in the attic, and the worthy pair
themselves were safe in bed and
asleep. Lydia would suddenly wake.
lift her deep frilled nightcap from the
pillow, and bearing the roll of a a
riage come up the street, stop, a bell
runs sharply, and doors open and
shut, she would remark to the still
slumbering Peter, ''rhose folks next
door is pretty late birds" Yet she
had never caught a glimpse of them
Tor two months after they were set
tied at her lett hand.
One dark, wintry night there set in
o heavy rain, so heavy that neither
Peter nor Lydia thought it safe to 90
out, for the water froze as it fell, and
the streets were a sheet of wet ice:
they were very much disappointed. for
that NIGHT Mrs Iob,,oon Del. -.